David Tours Scotts Miracle-Gro Plant In Butts County

Georgia Senator David Perdue toured the Scotts Miracle-Gro Growing Media Plant on Ga. Highway 42 in Jenkinsburg Wednesday afternoon and said it is a place lawmakers in Washington need to visit to understand the working people in America.

“Having been an old manufacturing guy, I always look forward to invitations from manufacturing plants in Georgia,” Perdue said. “Georgia is the best place in the country to do business. Part of that are companies just like Miracle-Gro. When they look at the investments they make down here, they continue to grow.

“We’ve worked hard from a federal level to get the economy going again, and these people are certainly benefitting from that,” he added. “And I wanted a chance to come see the operation and meet the people here and get a lay of the land. I heard a little bit about it a few weeks ago and wanted to see it for myself.”

Headquartered in Ohio, Scotts Miracle-Gro is the world’s largest marketer of branded consumer products for lawn and garden care. The company recently expanded operations at its Jenkinsburg facility. The plant has been open for more than 40 years and employs 56 full-time and 45 seasonal workers. It produces 110,000 bags of mulch a day, with an average of 150 tractor-trailer loads of fertilizer leaving the plant daily.

Perdue said the Scotts Miracle-Gro facility is representative of what Georgia has to offer in both products and people.

“This is Georgia. Ag is about half of our GDP (Gross Domestic Product), and they’re using God-given raw material from right here out of our forests,” Perdue said. “Having been a big consumer of Miracle-Gro in the past, I know their mediums and mulches are really high quality. You can see the safety procedures they have in the plant, and this is what it is really all about.

“A lot of people in Washington who make these rules about business have never been in a place like this. These are the honest-to-goodness working men and women of America. They’re right here in Georgia, and this is how I grew up, how these people grew up, and this is a great job for this area – one of the largest employers in the area – so I’m delighted with their success here.”

Plant Manager Adam Davis took Perdue, along with State Sen. Burt Jones, Butts County Commission Chairman Ken Rivers, Butts County Sheriff Gary Long and Chief Deputy Arthur White and others on the tour and said his employees were happy Sen. Perdue wanted to see their plant.

“We’re excited the senator visited the facility today,” Davis said. “We showed him around, showed him what we do, showed him our operation. This facility has been in the community for 40-plus years. It is a big contributing economic factor out here. We’re excited to have him out.”